Former Liverpool star Xherdan Shaqiri has netted his first goal for new club the Chicago Fire since leaving Lyon to move to the MLS.
Shaqiri departed Anfield in last summer's transfer window for the Ligue 1 side in a £5million deal, but scored just two goals for Peter Bosz's men. That poor form meant that Lyon allowed him to leave when Chicago came calling in February.
He arrived at Soldier Field in time for the start of the new MLS season, starting all four of the Fire's opening games. But he has taken him until his most recent outing to register his first goal for his new club.
Ezra Hendrickson's men hosted Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, with Shaqiri selected in a central attacking midfield position. And he finally showed the quality that the Fire were looking for when they opted to make him their Designated Player.
It took 30 minutes for the deadlock to be broken, with the hosts making the most of their dominance when Shaqiri intercepted a loose ball on the halfway line before turning and releasing Fabian Herbers. Herbers raced towards the Sporting goal before laying off to Kacper Przybyłko who fired his shot underneath Tim Melina.
The Fire were not able to double their until the second-half, but when they did it was Shaqiri's time to shine. Mauricio Pindea drew a foul in the area, with Shaqiri stepping up to convert the subsequent penalty for his first goal in a Chicago shirt.
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And the Swiss international was instrumental again when the Fire made sure of the win with eight minutes remaining. Shaqiri seized onto a pass before releasing Brian Gutierrez, who cut past a defender before passing to Przybyłko to fire in.
The win lifted the Fire to second place in the MLS' Eastern Conference and secured their best start to a season in 13 years. Having been so instrumental in securing all three points, Shaqiri was hailed for his performance by Chicago boss Hendrickson.
"It's really hard to take him off the pitch. He's such a good player and he's a very effective player. And when games are close like this, you don't really want to take your star player off because he just brings that extra quality to the game and helps unlock defenses for us," he said.
"We know he can't play every game at 90 minutes, but so far he's been doing well and, you know, I don't think he would want to come off if I did try to take him off (laughs). But I haven't found a need to take him off yet in any of the games that we've played. So that's why he stayed on.
"That was probably our most complete performance so far this year. I was really proud of them, the kind of effort they put in tonight, because that's not an easy team to play against. It's good to see that we got multiple goals again, so that's always good. But all in all, great game by the guys tonight. I was very happy, very pleased with them."
